Twig

I find that hard to believe. Especially considering your example of denying, which has a very specific purpose in the overall design of the game. It's not some throw-away aspect that can just be removed willy-nilly without adversely affecting the balance of Dota. It has a purpose, and that purpose is good. Your argument was 1) That's a judgment of function, based on your interpretation of the FLAVOR of the game. It's not really anyone's fault that this kind of judgment happens, because the developers have no choice but to inject that flavor (else gamers would complain that the game is too bland), and obviously it's hard to ignore on the gamer's part, because the flavor is so IN YOUR FACE. But... my point is, where, in the rules of the game, does it state that? Who decided that's what the intent was? Boil the game down to the mechanics, strip out the flavor, and they're not "autonomous death minions". They're objects that move towards the opponent's base, colliding with and destroying each other. The function from there can go in any direction the Game Designer so chooses. That's what I was talking about earlier, when I said: "It's [a] fair [complaint] until you realize that Dota is a competitive game, and not astory-based game (no matter how much flavor Valve has added to it/stolen from the original)." 2) It's strange that you'd hold that judgment so closely, despite the first instance of this functional object BEING Dota where yo CAN deny. If League had been first, your judgment would probably be more legit, because League clearly ONLY has that intention for this specific object. That was just a dumb joke. Hence the dumb caps. Sorry. ): The rest of that paragraph was very important, though! "Objectively" has a definition that does not even remotely apply to what you're saying. You're making a judgment. You can't just go and say it's objectively bad because you don't like it. That's fucked up, man! Belief. Objectivity. Those two things should never share the same space! Huh. The implication is pretty obvious to me. You're directly comparing jungling between the two games. If you believe that LoL jungling "adds a good bit of complexity" compared to Dota's "just rune spots and Roshan", well, I don't know man. Can you clarify what exactly you meant by this statement, if not to directly compare the two games, so I have a better understanding of where yo're coming from? lol You have no idea what you're talking about. Also, you're making this quite personal for someone who doesn't want to make it personal. Look, I'm willing to believe you didn't intend to say the things you've said - fuck knows I've been there a million times in my life - but you did say them. ):

It's seriously my favorite video game advertisement ever. Close second is the N64 Smash Bros. commercial. It was part of a series for PS2 adverts called "The Third Place", or something. Some of the others in that series are pretty good, too, but most of them are not worth watching.

Also I stop being an awkward guy about an hour in, when I grow acclimated/accustomed/comfortable to/with new people. Problem is, chance meetings are usually much shorter unless you manage to make them longer. And since I'm so awkward early on... It never lasts. O woe.

Oh yes, it definitely is! Forgot about it. I also watched the live action movie, unfortunately. Nowhere near as funny as the anime.

nothing will ever beat

To be honest, I have no idea how it could've been considered "generic" even in its first incarnation, except that it was a first-person shooter? Doesn't seem all that different, outside perspective (and more actual gameplay, the type of which they, I am pretty sure!, said was going to exist, anyway). Also, I no longer see evidence of the super rad polygonal ooze portal things? Those were rad. Super rad.

Nichijou is boss. Oh! Edo Rocket is, similarly, boss. Azumangah Daioh! is the predecessor to Nichijou, and not as good (five episodes in, where I am now), but you gotta give it credit. Excel Saga is old. I loved it in high school? I'm... not sure if I would today? It was a great parody of anime tropes from its time. Most of which, hilariously and sadly, probably still apply today. Cromartie High School would easily reach the top few of my list of comedy anime, were I to construct such a list.

I think the art is hilarious (while also being very good) and for that reason I love it.

Jurassic Park: The Game is not nearly as bad as I was led to believe. It's definitely flawed, and basically feels like the failed experiment that resulted The Walking Dead, but I still enjoyed it well enough! I also played through Back to the Future: The Game prior to that. Probably the weakest of the traditional click 'em ups that Telltale has produced, but still fun. Also I had an absolutely insane dream last night that was basically a mish mash of Bioshock Infinite, Jurassic Park, and Back to the Future, but without any of the defining features of any of those games. That makes no sense. It is true, nonetheless. God, it's one of those dreams that makes me hate the fact that dreams are so hard to remember. It was amazing. Oh. Anyway, yeah, games were decent. Not great, but decent.

I ran into Chris at GDC and was the most awkward! I've met one other person from the internet (aside from the Idle Thumbs GDC meetup, which was easier, because it was a group), and it went all right. Granted, it was a bidirectional relationship. We'd been talking online for years.

Just leave your browser open and do stuff when you can. Don't pay so much close attention to it. GEEEEZ. I played it over the course of a week and probably actually only played it for four or five hours total. I feel like even that is stretching it. Most of those being failed attempts at beating one of two specific levels, before I found the trick.

Yep! I wonder if the sequel will be nearly as popular.

I have immense nostalgia for Scooby Doo (and pretty much every other Hanna-Barbera cartoon from around that time, despite most of them being awful!), so I started watching the new series based on your recommendation. Goddamn Scooby has the dumbest fucking voice and I hate it. Not that I expected any different, but I did expect to be able to tolerate it.

I tried to watch The Simpsons from the beginning once, because well it's The Simpsons. My parents disallowed me from watching it when I was young, but whatever I did catch was enjoyable enough, I guess. Season one was bleh, and so I never finished it or made it to season two. I decided it's not a show where I care about seeing everything. Or even most things. My opinion would probably be different if I hadn't been barred from watching it as a kid. I'd have a much larger appreciation for it. Sometimes that makes me sad.

Pretty much definitely that, and not "har har women sure are catty aren't they?" Certainly a dumb trope, but more insulting to the men for being braindead where boobs are involved.

I actually never said that. Or even implied it, I think? My only objection was with your implication that Dota is poorly designed. To ACTUALLY say something: It might embrace what some people consider bad design, but as a package, it's a fucking masterpiece. It needs and thrives on those allegedly "bad" design decisions, and it's a better game for it. And in the post you quoted there, I was simply listing differences, because osmosisch didn't seem to understand, and then making an admittedly-(in-that-post-even!)-probably-inaccurate judgment on the early-game-skirmish-ness of LoL compared to Dota. Re: jungling: League has buffs, boss monsters. Dota has stacking, pulling. I wouldn't trust anyone who says Dota's jungling is less complicated. It's just a different kind of complicated. And serves a different purpose. Also to answer your question: Singed is pretty much the be-all end-all of League of Legends for me. I like some other dudes, but he is number one by a million miles. I played the game for almost a year before Dota 2 came out, and he was my number one from the moment I first played him (which was probably a couple months in). Also also: I detest jungling in both League and Dota. It's boring. NOT MY CUP OF TEA. AT. ALL. Re: lane control: I made no judgments regarding which is better in that post. But I vastly prefer to have as much control over the situation as possible when I'm playing a game that can be as intensely competitive as League or Dota. You're absolutely, 100% wrong about thinking that denying is absolutely 100% objectively a bad design decision. I don't even know where to begin when people start talking like this. I RETRACT MY PREVIOUS APOLOGY. I don't think, and am pretty sure I have never said (in a not-obviously-jokey manner), that League is a bad game. I just prefer Dota. Why get so insanely defensive? This is exactly what I was talking about with my coworkers. IT'S WEIRD. Jesus Christ all this because I wanted to express my innocent sadness at no longer enjoying League of Legends. If I'd known it was going to snowball into this shit I would've just raved about Tusk's snowball skill instead.

The point is you have no control over your own creeps. You can only control enemy creeps. Drawing aggro is fine... if you want to push the tower, I guess. Tanking creeps just outside of tower range is fine... if you want to prevent your tower from taking damage. But your creeps will creep on creepin' on, regardless of what you want. In Dota you can, as mentioned, deny, pull jungle, block the lane (arguably possible in League, but to no real benefit - believe me, I've tried), or using one of the heroes that can just straight up sacrifice an allied creep for some other benefit. Dota games are equally as active in that regard. (Moreso from what little League I've watched, but I can't say that without doubting myself, as I found League intolerably boring to watch, even when I still loved playing it.) It's just that Dota players have a whole hell of a lot more to manage.

Denying (of all kinds). "Why am I killing my teammates?! THAT'S SO DUMB." That's always number one on the list, in my experience. It's fair until you realize that Dota is a competitive game, and not a story-based game (no matter how much flavor Valve has added to it/stolen from the original).

I was with you until you started saying the design is bad, and the game makes no sense, and the difficulty hurdles exist just for the sake of existing. You sound like half of my coworkers. MEH. EDIT: IGNORE THE ABOVE TEXT. Sorry, I realized like a second ago you're probably not being intentionally trollish like a bunch of my coworkers tend to be. I reread it and it's more jokey than I thought. They're all huge LoL fans. For some reason, this is a thing that I deal with on an almost weekly basis where somebody just starts shit-talking Dota for no reason. It's really bizarre and annoying and childish and so it gets on my nerves sometimes. SHUT UP I AM DUMB

Pfft, Gyro. He's one of the funner carries, for sure, but he ain't got nothin' on Tusk. Especially with the right team. Tusk, Lion, Spirit Breaker, Tidehunter. And Warlock, but he didn't contribute as much to the AWESOME TUSK feeling. As my friend put it: SPLOOSH ROLL BOMF TUSKY DUSKY SPLASH SPLASH WHIRRRRR Tusk/Lion lane is deadly. Tusk doesn't have the damage output to kill people on his own, early-game (or late game, really, he's not a carry), but with the right lane partner to nuke stuff down? Yes. Yessssss.

I played an ARAM in League (first League game in months) and I was so bored. (ARAMs in Dota 2 do not have that effect on me.) It's almost heartbreaking. I played that game for so long. Then Dota 2 came out and I just stopped giving a fuck. Every time I go back I enjoy it less and less. I wish it was fun again. ): Buuuut on the other hand, Tusk is by far the best thing in video games. JESUS CHRIST EVERY GAME AS HIM IS FUN.

Geez, Chris, let some dudes talk about Dota for an hour five minutes, you power-mad fiend!

Yeah that was a surprise for me, too. Fortunately, I don't really care about spoilers, but yeahhh.

Joffrey's sadism is sexual as well as violent because he's a horrible fucking person. Duh?